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A Good Year

Review By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com

Some people might find A Good Year charming. For them, it might be just the sort of lighthearted affair that completes a good date. Others might leave longing for the type of high-class action movie star Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott are known for, namely Gladiator, their last joint effort, which won big at the box office and even bigger at the Oscars.

Me? I was just annoyed.

A Good Year is basically 118 minutes of Russell Crowe trying to be Hugh Grant. Maybe if I’d never heard of Russell Crowe before, it would work better; to be sure, Crowe is gleefully happy to throw himself into the charmingly foppish daffiness that is Mr. Grant’s bread and butter. But something about him just plain doesn’t pull it off. I was not able to separate my knowledge of the real man: the phone-throwing, sporadically maniacal, uneasy tough guy who was rejected from appearing on Sesame Street because he’s not a good enough role model. (I’m not kidding – look it up.)

The whole enterprise just seems to be trying to force the puzzle pieces into place, and most of the charm is lost in the translation. It seems way too obvious that this is not a movie but rather a career-driven bid for Crowe to seem more likable.

The story is right out of the light-British-romantic-comedy playbook, which is hardly a bad thing on its own. Max Skinner used to be a young boy (played by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Freddie Highmore who spent time with his uncle (Albert Finney) at his uncle’s vineyard. Fast-forward to the present, and Max, now an unscrupulous jerk of a British investment expert played by Crowe, hears word of his uncle’s death. He has to travel to France to check out the condition of the vineyard and hopefully sell it for a tidy sum.

Charming young Freddie Highmore turns into white-collar scumbag Russell Crowe? I shuddered at the thought. Of course, the movie is really about the modern Skinner’s redemption, as he rediscovers his roots, finds romance, and those whole nine yards. Still – Freddie Highmore growing up into Russell Crowe? Really?

The movie poses the question early on: what exactly was it that turned Max into such a louse – but it never answers it. Instead, it rewards Max with a preposterously beautiful love interest played by Marion Cotillard, who he hears will never date anyone. Due to the necessities of the plot, however, she’s an underwritten character who’s in bed with him by the